La Junta boys' basketball want to ride last year's success

Wednesday

Nov 21, 2012 at 10:42 AMNov 21, 2012 at 10:48 AM

Ken Hamrick

The La Junta High School boys' basketball team had one of the best seasons in several years in 2011-12 as the Tigers went 15-9, took second place in the Tri-Peaks League East Division, placed fourth in the Tri-Peaks League Tournament and advanced to the state Tournament, where they won a first-round game.

"It was a lot of fun to get to the top 16 in state," said LJ coach Brock Hinkhouse. "It was good for the kids to see how teams at that level play. Hopefully, it will carry on and our kids will compete well this year."

The Tigers return several players from last year's team, most of whom saw a lot of playing time.

"We have a good group of seniors who are coming back," Hinkhouse said. "This has been our core for the last two years, so I'm excited to see how this group plays."

Hinkhouse said that many of the players are capable of playing more than one position.

"This year, we're not going to have set guards, forwards and posts," Hinkhouse said. "We have a bunch of kids who are all about the same size and height, so we're going to kind of interchange stuff. We'll have guards playing in the post and posts playing in the guard spot. So I think that's how it's going to work."

"We have some really good experience," Hinkhouse said. "We're not quite as deep as we've been in the past, but we do have some good experience. Then we have some young kids who are looking to contribute later on in the year if they work hard."

The Tigers will again play in the very strong Tri-Peaks East.

"The league's tough every year," Hinkhouse said. "We have Pueblo Centennial dropping into the league and they'll be very competitive. St. Mary's, Lamar and all of them will be pretty good basketball teams. It should be a competitive league."

The short-term goal for the Tigers is to come together as a team, according to Hinkhouse.

"We're going to start out and become a team first," Hinkhouse said. "A league title would be great, but we'll see how the season goes and unfolds for us."

La Junta begins the season with a home game against Manitou Springs. The Tigers will then host the 25th Annual La Junta Holiday Shootout on Dec. 6-8.